Chapter & Verse

Correspondence on not-so-famous lost words

Sally Charin hopes someone can identify a poem beginning: “admit impediments, accept alarms, and random incompatibilities….” She recalls the author’s being identified as a Radcliffe graduate of the 1930s.

More queries from the archives:
“The saved man goes to the zoo with his child on a Sunday afternoon.”
“He that keepeth the law becometh master of the intent thereof.”
“Oh, do not think because I make  / Arrogant wounded unkind stabs / At suffering prowling man /  That I’m not partisan to all the fumbles in his mind. Whence else these lines? For whose sake?”

 “I’ll pretend I’m teaching” (July-August). No citations have arrived, but Eve Menger and Carlota Dwyer noted the quotation’s similarity to a remark often attributed to Soviet workers: “They pretend to pay us, and we pretend to work.”

Send inquiries and answers to “Chapter and Verse,” Harvard Magazine, 7 Ware Street, Cambridge 02138 or via e-mail to chapterandverse@harvardmag.com.

You might also like

Making Money Funny

Matt Levine’s spunky Bloomberg column

Reconstructing the Berlin Wall

David Leo Rice explores the strange, unseen forces shaping our world.

Off the Shelf

The wealth gap, shamanism, the life of David Nathan, and more

Most popular

The Professor Who Quantified Democracy

Erica Chenoweth’s data shows how—and when—authoritarians fall.

Harvard Layoffs Continue, with More to Come

In the wake of federal government actions, several Harvard schools and institutes are cutting costs.

Remembering Tom Lehrer

The mathematician and satirist kept Harvard in his thoughts—and lyrics

Explore More From Current Issue

Illustration of a math students gathering, 1936, in Annanberg Hall, Memorial Hall

Including profundity and pretzels

Illustration of Donald Trump and Alan Garber wearing boxing gloves, facing off beneath the quote: “The stakes are so high that we have no choice.”

Introducing a guide to the issues, players, and stakes.

a couple sitting at a park overlooking the ocean

Enjoying Boston Harbor’s Renaissance this summer